At the age of 16 Dean left school and decided that as there was the worst recession since the early part of the century in progress a secure job could be found by joining the armed forces. The marines was the choice he made. He progressed rapidly and 59 Commando in Plymouth became his family and home the next 20 years became a heavy blur of loss,pain and eventually seriuos back injury. Dean was left with little choice but to retire from active duty and retrain in civilian life. As Deans father was a plumbing and heating engineer this was his choice of carreer after extensive training whilst trying to hide from the demons of the past and a painfull back injury he decided to try to start a business of his own putting 100% into work and at times nearly forgetting the past.

Dean built up his business from scratch and grew the business starting in 1999 for 16 years and expanded year on year eventually employing 14 people - turning over £1.6 million a year in final year

During this time Dean had a Wife – 5 bedroom dethatched house built by himself and had 4 beautiful daughters

Dean helped many people during his success including paying his brother in laws mortgage for 4 months when he broke his leg due to a football injury

Helped an employee – whose wife became very ill after giving birth to twins – serious issues. For 6-7 Dean paid this employees wages of £500 a week while he was caring for his family. These are just a couple of examples of how Dean has helped people when they were in need.

Dean Financially helped a lot of people with money or support while he was in a position to do so.

Around 2010 – 2011 Deans back injury became very serious and the pain was unbearable – doctors prescribed prescription pain (morphine) relief – making him very dopy, not with it – unable to function and run the business. A friend suggested illegal drugs to avoid side effects which worked and made it possible to function for 18 months – no one knew but eventually Dean came clean to his wife – she agreed to stay in the marriage if he came off them, so he tried prescription drugs again but had the same issues, with a business to run, employees, house wife and 4 daughters Dean felt he had no choice but to go back onto illegal drugs, which caused a lot of anxiety and stress for him, knowing it was wrong and secretive. He came clean to his wife – she was having an affair and left the relationship at that point and asked him to leave so he left everything, Dean ended up on streets – had nothing and no one that dean had previously helped was there for him. At this point Dean emotionally broke and found himself on the streets begging for money for food.

Thankfully the Medication was changed at a later date which helped Dean to function. On new medication and he didn’t go back on illegal drugs but remained homeless for over 12 months. Dean met Michelle early December 2018 when begging one evening in the cold..The friendship grew and as like minded business people they hit it off straight away... Dean often comes into Vanilla and before long all the Vanilla team took a huge liking to Dean, recognizing what a decent man he obviously is. Dean got put into a night shelter 2 weeks before xmas and was moved into a shared house in January and is now ready to start life all over again and re build business from scratch feeling mentally and emotionally stronger.

Dean wants to build a very special business in the building industry to take on apprentices to give them a skill. To give young people that need help and support in this difficult and often damaging society to gain a career and valuable life skills.

In Vanilla Hair Salon Michelle learnt how to grow a salon of polite, caring and respectful young people through taking them on as apprentices after leaving school. Michelle found that this was the beginning of success for vanilla – teaching valuable life skills alongside a trade and confidence to develop them into well rounded young people who become a positive impact on the local community, Dean is looking to replicate this business model in the building industry. Michelle and Dean are very like minded and so are able to come from the same mindset with what we are looking to achieve – not focused on huge profit – more focused on building something very special to help develop and grow young people and support them through lifes troubles as much as possible.

Due to Deans current circumstances he is unable to find the funds for starting this project – so he is looking for people to donate money to make this dream come true. He is looking to raise £6,000 to pay for a van and tools and set up a website to get started as a one man band and then start to take on apprentices as he business builds and expands

Dean also wants to offer people in need or on low income a reliable, affordable building, plumbing and heating service. He has over 35 years experience and also has a vast assortment of qualifications.

Michelle (owner of Vanilla Hair Salon & Spa in Bury St Edmunds) “I wrote this story with Dean, we did it together as Dean being a very independent man really has struggled to accept that he needs help buty he has now recognized that it is not a weakness to ask for help, life hits very hard sometimes and we are all on this earth together. I believe that when people come together they can achieve great things and I have high hopes for Dean and his wonderful project that he is hoping will benefit everyone involved "

For anyone helping this dream come true, Dean would like to say a huge thank you for your help and support!